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LONDON — On the platform 10 metres above the water, with one dive to perform and a 10-plus-point lead on fourth-place Australia, Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito had a simple observation for her teammate and dear friend, Roseline Filion.

“Our last dive is one of our best,” Benfeito said. “So I told her, ‘All we have to do is land on our heads and we’ve got it.’ And that’s exactly what we did. As soon as we hit the water, we looked at each other and I said, ‘It’s okay. We’re done!’ ”

After an impossibly long wait for their score to be posted, Benfeito and Filion had won a bronze medal in the 10-metre synchronized diving event with a career-best score of 337.62 points. The Chinese pair of Chen Ruolin and Wang Hao were expectedly brilliant in victory with 368.40, well clear of the 343.32 of Mexico’s Alejandra Orozco Loza and Paola Espinosa Sanchez.

That wait for the final score?

“I think they did that just to get us nervous,” Benfeito said, laughing. “But we knew we had a solid last dive. It was worth the wait.”

Their medal was Canada’s second in as many diving finals here, added to the 3-metre synchronized bronze won Sunday by Émilie Heymans and Jennifer Abel.

It puts the team two-thirds of the way to its stated goal of three London medals, with strong chances still ahead in the men’s 3-metre synchro, Alex Despatie and Reuben Ross competing Wednesday; the men’s 3-metre individual board (Despatie); women’s 3-metres (Heymans and Abel); and both Benfeito and Filion on 10 metres.

Tuesday’s medallists said they were inspired by the Heymans-Abel performance, and buoyed by their own strong results and training headed into this competition.

“This was a matter of, ‘Hey, we can do it. Why not me?’ ” said Montreal-based coach Aaron Dziver, who with Cesar Henderson and Arturo Miranda has shaped the team.

“Meaghan and Roseline’s mental toughness comes with experience,” he added of the well-travelled, highly decorated pair. “They know what it takes to get the job done to get on the podium. This isn’t brand new to them. In a moment of pressure like we just saw, I have a lot of faith in them.”

The divers were seventh at Beijing four years ago, using those Games to gain experience. But they came to London to perform and to get results.

“We were going for perfection with our training,” Filion said. “That never happens, but we had to trust ourselves to do the best we could.”

Benfeito and Filion aren’t merely in synch at the pool, they’re kindred spirits in almost every way. From almost the moment they joined forces back in 2005, they have become practically sisters. They dine and shop and go to movies together, and along the way they have developed an almost seventh sense about each other’s moods and needs.

In the past nine months, they have even shared the grief of losing family members, weathering the pain together.

“I lost my grandfather in January and Meaghan lost an uncle last October,” Filion said. “The minute I learned of her tragedy, I was there for her. She did the same for me. We’ve even talked about this. I asked her, ‘Really? In one year? We have to go through this?’ It only made our bond stronger. And today, I’m sure they’re watching us and are proud of us. They were here, and they had the best seats in the house.”

Benfeito, whose name translates to “well done” from the Portuguese, knew upon qualifying for the Olympic synchro that her event would fall on the 50th birthday of her father, Arthur.

“I told him then that the only gift I could give him was an Olympic medal,” Benfeito said. “He told me, ‘It’s the only thing I want.’ As soon as we finished our event today, I pointed at him in the stands and he knew exactly what it meant.”

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It was 16 years to the day that Canada’s Annie Pelletier won springboard bronze at the Atlanta Olympics. Pelletier, a diving analyst here for RDS, remains a strong presence in the pair’s lives and even dove with them shortly before they left for London.

Assistant chef de mission Sylvie Bernier is a hugely motivational role model as well, her 1984 Los Angeles springboard gold coming before either Benfeito or Filion was born.

The Canadians were tied for second with the Chinese on Tuesday after the first of five dives, the British pair raising the roof with the early lead.

The Chinese vaulted into a Round 2 lead that they’d never relinquish, Canada slipping to fourth. But Benfeito and Filion clawed back into third in Round 3 and there they stayed until they stepped onto the medals podium.

“I was concerned with their back 3½ [somersault] tuck,” Dziver said of the pair’s fourth dive. “We’ve had a bit of difficulty with that dive the last little bit, but they came through and did it in really good (synch). … “They’re a fantastic pair. They’re not oil and vinegar, they hang out with one another and they want to do well for each other. Their cohesion, energy and chemistry is fantastic, and they’re an inspiration to a lot of divers in Canada.”

The medal around her neck, Benfeito kept using the word “amazing” to describe this London experience. Filion’s bronze, meanwhile, was in her track suit jacket pocket with the ribbon trailing out.

“I always do that,” she said sheepishly. “We knew we’d done the work. We came here with no regrets and on the final dive, we said to each other, ‘Okay, basic stuff. We’ve got this.’ We just trusted that it was our time.”

After 50 metres, five dives of 10 metres each, indeed it was.

dstubbs@montrealgazette.com

Twitter: @Dave_Stubbs

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